Robust Plastic Product Design A Holistic Approach

Tooling, molding, secondary operations, material selection, evaluation and testing, design, project management, costing, value engineering, international supplier management and enhancement, and more: this book provides a broad insight from the author’s over 40 years of experience in the plastics industry. Aimed at both technical and non-technical personnel involved with plastic product design and manufacturing, this book shows how having the big picture leads to effective solutions and high-quality products. Numerous case studies of product failures exemplify the key concepts. The reader will benefit from the author’s unique depth and breadth of knowledge and experience as a team manager and hands-on contributor in all aspects of plastics, involving extremely robust, mission-critical products. Judicious attention to fundamental engineering principles is always at the foundation but “people issues” are also brought into focus from the author’s background as a long-time international trainer and Six Sigma expert. The book is therefore an essence of all the experience gained along the way: the good, the bad, and the ugly. This book is unique among the many other fine books available in this subject area in that it is the perspective of one who has been in the trenches—as opposed to an academician, scientist, or other professional from a field with narrower scope, such as material science, tooling, or manufacturing. Hence, the HOLISTIC APPROACH. Contents: • Causes of Plastics Failure • The Holistic Approach • Plastic Materials • Design • Tooling Considerations • Processing • Secondary Operations • Part and Tool Costs • Six Sigma Techniques in Plastics • Further Reading and Reference Material With forewords by Glenn Beall, Louis Maresca, and Joe McFadden.

Designing Successful Products with Plastics: Fundamentals of Plastic Part Design 2e provides expert insight into design considerations required to bring a concept product or part through design and ready-for-production. Rather than focusing on design rules and engineering equations used during product development, the emphasis of the book is on what the designer needs to consider during the early conceptual visualization stages, and in the detailed stages of the design process. This fully updated edition features new practical advice on how to design sustainably throughout the book. This approach will bridge the gap between the industrial designer, tasked with the ‘big picture’ product design and use, and the part designer, tasked with the detailed plastic part design for manufacture. Useful to both experienced and novice designers, this book brings valuable design process information through specific examples, enabling designers and engineers in the plastics industry to effectively use the available technical information to successfully design and manufacture new products. Brings together the worlds of the plastic part designer and the industrial designer and shows how each impacts the success of a development project. Teaches the “Four Pillars considerations (Materials, Processes, Tooling, and Design) required for every design decision to be made during a plastic part design project. The interrelationship of these considerations with the sustainability intent for the product being developed is taught and illustrated within this new edition. Illustrates the product design process roadmap from creation of the concept through implementation into manufacturing, highlighting steps and methods used throughout the process to limit risk and ensure success. Includes methods and design project management techniques used to ensure an efficient design process and successful manufacturing of the product or part.

This book is aimed at designers who have had limited or no experience with plastics materials as well as a more experienced designer who is designing a part for a use, process or an application that they are not familiar with. The reader is provided with an introduction to plastics as a design material and a discussion of materials commonly in use today. There is a discussion of a variety of processes available to the designer to make a part along with the design considerations each process will entail. This section also includes a discussion of useful prototyping processes, including advantages and disadvantages of each. Next, the book will discuss general design considerations applicable to most plastics product designs. In section 2 of the book the author will discuss elements of design of a number of generic plastic product types based on his 40+ years of experience of product design and development for a several companies with a variety of products. This section will include discussions of structural components, gears, bearings, hinges, snap fits, packaging, pressure vessels, and optical components. This section will discuss the general considerations that apply to these applications as well as specific incites about each particular application. The book concludes with a discussion of the general design process.

Designing Successful Products with Plastics: Fundamentals of Plastic Part Design provides expert insight into design considerations required to bring a concept product or part through design and ready-for-production. The book shows how integrating four key choices—materials, processes, tooling and design—in every design decision allows the designer to fully vet and optimize the design. Rather than focusing on design rules and engineering equations used during product development, the emphasis of the book is on what the designer needs to consider during the early conceptual visualization stages, and in the detailed stages of the design process. This approach will bridge the gap between the industrial designer, tasked with the ‘big picture’ product design and use, and the part designer, tasked with the detailed plastic part design for manufacture. Useful to both experienced and novice designers, this book brings valuable design process information through specific examples, enabling designers and engineers in the plastics industry to effectively use the available technical information to successfully design and manufacture new products. Bridges the gap between the industrial designer working on product design and use, and the part designer working on detailed part design for manufacture Enables designers to establish a solid foundation for new product development on the ‘four pillars’ of the process: materials, processes, tooling, and design Provides a hierarchy and roadmap through creative product design and implementation, so engineers can translate a product from creative concept through to realization and commercialization

This book provides a simplified and practical approach to designing with plastics that funda mentally relates to the load, temperature, time, and environment subjected to a product. It will provide the basic behaviors in what to consider when designing plastic products to meet performance and cost requirements. Important aspects are presented such as understanding the advantages of different shapes and how they influence designs. Information is concise, comprehensive, and practical. Review includes designing with plastics based on material and process behaviors. As de signing with any materials (plastic, steel, aluminum, wood, etc.) it is important to know their behaviors in order to maximize product performance-to-cost efficiency. Examples of many different designed products are reviewed. They range from toys to medical devices to cars to boats to underwater devices to containers to springs to pipes to buildings to aircraft to space craft. The reader's product to be designed can directly or indirectly be related to product design reviews in the book. Important are behaviors associated and interrelated with plastic materials (thermoplastics, thermosets, elastomers, reinforced plastics, etc.) and fabricating processes (extrusion, injec tion molding, blow molding, forming, foaming, rotational molding, etc.). They are presented so that the technical or non-technical reader can readily understand the interrelationships.

Indicates the deviations in design practices between metals and plastics. Discusses the ways of circumventing ill effects on plastics as well as the corrective measures that can be taken. Covers choice of product material from the perspective of: favorable circumstances for application, design characteristics of each material, prediction of expected life, comparison, and relative costs. Includes detailed practical design problems.